CROWN
Plot: Her mother was the housemaid of his family, and she was just another quiet girl at school. Nothing should have ever started, but the first spark was lit with the disappearance of her father and a huge debt that forced her to begin her life at the Akashi household. Akashi x OC; Heirs inspired.
CHAPTER 1
It was spring again. The petals of the Sakura cherry blossoms danced and twirled to the melody of the wind as it flew by and into the boundless blue sky. Tsukino Kiyori was never fond of the season of beginnings. It made spring sound like some artistic drawing taken straight out of a shoujo manga. To her, spring was a season for the romantics in the world—a word that juxtaposed her personality entirely. She was fine with no frills and decorations in her life; just being able to get by another day with no problems was a relief for her. A big relief actually, considering her entire life was a problem.
The chime of a small bakery near downtown Tokyo rang as the petite strawberry blonde girl pushed the door open and stepped in. A young woman standing by the counter greeted her animatedly, "Tsukino-chan! You're here early today."
The girl put her walked over to behind the counter and put her school bag down. She replied with a small smile, "Yes, since it's the beginning of the new school year, they let us out early today. I can take over your shift now, Ito-san."
As Tsukino quickly threw on the bakery work clothes, Ito, the lady that had a shift before her, bid her farewells to the high school girl and left the shop. Since it was quite a small store, it only ever needed one salesperson at the counter. There were three bakers in the back making the bread, cakes, and other baking goods. Tsukino was lucky enough to stumble across this job in a weekly newspaper that was casually left on the seat of a train as she went home from school. The job paid well, and since her family has always been poor, it was able to support their eating expenses somewhat. In addition, Tsukino was always able to bring back some of the leftover bread the bakery had from that day so that she and her mom wouldn't have to worry about breakfast the next morning.
As she watched the customers come and go, with happy smiles on her faces, Tsukino couldn't help but feel a sense of longing. It was unfair that they could afford something like bread from a bakery. The food that her bakery sold was by no means cheap. It wasn't fair that they had that sort of spare cash; it wasn't fair that those parents all had jobs that paid a decent amount…it wasn't fair that her dad was missing and her mom was a maid.
"Thanks for your hard work today, Tsukino-chan," the store owner greeted her as she closed up the store at the end of the day, "it's really a shame that you're resigning but…"
The strawberry blonde raised an eyebrow, "Wait, I'll be resigning? What do you mean?" She certainly did not remember submitting a resignation form.
The lady tilted her head in confusion, "Your mother didn't tell you? She said that you guys will be moving to Kyoto so you'll be quitting your job."
To say she was confused would be an understatement. She had heard nothing from her mother about this resignation, much less moving away! Heck, she just started her second year at Seirin High today so why would they move all of a sudden. It wasn't like they had the money to buy a house in Kyoto anyways. Thanking the bakery owner with a bow, and then taking her final paycheck, Tsukino hurried back home to her small apartment on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Once she opened the door of her home, she immediately threw her shoes off and slammed the door shut. "Mom! Where are you? You better come out and explain yourself about this whole moving thing."
A middle-aged woman with quite a few strands of white hair sticking out from a mass of blank strands that were tied in a ponytail walked out of the only bedroom in the place. Her brown eyes crinkled at the sight of her fuming daughter on the doorsteps of the apartment. "Welcome home, dear," she cooed with a gentle smile on her face.
Tsukino's mother wasn't ugly. Other than the obvious creases on her hands that face that were evidence of overwork and fatigue, she was quite a beautiful woman. When she first gave birth to Kiyori, she was one of the most beautiful women in the town she came from. However, after her husband's business went bankrupt and he fled the city, she struggled take care of her toddler girl by herself and her age began to show a lot more quickly than she had anticipated. Since she was from quite a poor town, the education she received when she was little was quite lacking, and thus she was unable to find a proper job in the city of Tokyo. Akashi Masaomi was a man that she used to know when her husband was still a businessman. The two were partners in business. Thus, she quickly became friends with the man's wife, Akashi Shiori. She begged her husband to let Tsukino's mother and her toddler daughter stay in their mansion for a few years after the bankruptcy incident, and he obliged. However, after Shiori died, Tsukino's mother was demoted to being a housemaid, and both her and her daughter were kicked out of the mansion.
Since she was still young back then, Kiyori wasn't aware of her mother's long history with the Akashi household; she just thought that her mother picked that place to be a housemaid because they paid relatively well, and it was the only job she could find.
"Don't welcome home me, mom. I heard from my boss today that we were moving to Kyoto? Since when did we have the cash to buy a new apartment in Kyoto of all places? And I just started my school year? You can't just decide these things on your own you know!" the daughter shouted across the room towards her mother. She hated her family's desperate financial standing—she hated how useless she felt.
The black haired woman slowly walked towards her daughter and gave her a small hug, "I'm sorry, Kiyori. But you're exactly right. We don't have the money to keep living here. We have to sell this apartment and move to my employer's house to live. You'll be attending Rakuzan High from now on."
Before she could protest, her mom squeezed her tighter, "Your father…he was found dead of drug overdose in Manhattan a few days ago. It turns out he was using the rest of his money for gambling…and that he has a huge amount of debt on his back."
"You're kidding me," Kiyori pushed her mother away, "why? Why the hell does it have to be us? We're both working our asses off back her in the wretched city while he's wasting our efforts in the States?! Who does he think we are? Slaves?"
"Kiyori, don't talk about your father like that," Tsukino's mother frowned, "I'm sure he was just devastated about his company and—"
She had enough. Every time she tried to badmouth her father, her mother would always scold her for it. Why was she so considerate towards him? He left her to die with his newborn daughter right after his company went bankrupt. Why the hell was she so in love with a putrid man like that?
"And you…!" Kiyori screamed, "You're always standing up for that bastard of a man that left his family to die! It's never about me, yourself, or us. If he was alive and asked you to give up your life for him, I bet you would do that! I hate you the most. I hate you!"
She ran to the bedroom and slammed the door shut. When her life was finally beginning to look up again, when she was finally almost able to enter university and get a proper job, this was going to happen. She didn't want to move to a stranger's house. This Akashi family that her mother worked with sounded scary. She didn't want to change schools and have to remake friends.
As she crouched up in the corner of the room and sobbed silently, she wished that her whole life were a dream—that she was actually a rich princess in a faraway land. Tsukino always heard stories about princesses when she was young, and her dream was once to be a princess. Only until she had grown older did she realize that her life was far from a fairytale—it was more like a nightmare.
Her first thought on the place was that it was huge. Tsukino didn't think that she would be face to face to a house that was this humungous before. As the maid, who was a friend of her mother's, led the two of them towards the corridor where the housemaids stayed, Tsukino couldn't help but look around, in awe of the fancy decorations of the place. If she wasn't going to have to work as a maid in this place from now on, she may have actually been excited to live here.
"Tsukino-san, you and your daughter's room will be here," the maid let the two to a small room with two twin-sized beds, and a small writing desk, "Tsukino-san, your daughter's uniform will be in the closet. It was provided Akashi-sama himself. He said that he wanted to meet your daughter after she arrived."
"Hm, of couse," Kiyori's mother turned to her daughter, "please follow Shuuta-san to meet with the head of this house."
Kiyori was silent for a moment before nodding obediently, "…Yes."
With that, she left the room with the maid named Shuuta and headed to what she believed to be the study of the Akashis. Once again, she took note on just how big the house was.
Once they arrived, Shuuta knocked on the door, explained their presence, and then left Kiyori to enter on her own. The strawberry blonde gently turned the knob of the study and then pushed the door open. Once she could see the inside, she was once again stunned at the massive size of the place. The entire study could probably fit her whole apartment from before!
"Close the door," a deep voice commanded that snapped the girl out of her stupor. She quickly shut the door, careful not to make any sounds. Once done, she turned to the man that ordered to see her. He looked…terrifying. His red bangs covered some of the wrinkles on his forehead, and his sharp eyes felt as if they could pierce into her soul.
"Come closer," he ordered, to which Kiyori wordlessly obliged. She could feel her hands and legs shaking from fear. Being within a two meter radius of the man at the desk was almost too much for her to bear. Her palms were sweaty, and she forced saliva down her throat as her eyes met the ones of the man at the desk.
He opened his mouth to speak, "So you're the daughter…huh. How old are you?"
Her lips trembled when she tried to speak, but she took a deep breath to calm herself down. She didn't want to make a fool out of herself in front of this man. She despised rich men like him—acting so superior, like he was at the top of the world. No, she wouldn't allow him to look down on her.
Swallowing her nerves, she looked at the man in the eye and answered in the firmest voice she could muster at the moment, "I'm sixteen, turning seventeen next spring."
He kept his gaze and tested if she would look away. However, the girl's amber eyes continued to stare straight at him. Finally, he let out a sigh, "I heard from your mother that you had good grades at your previous school?"
"Yes, I believe so," Kiyori replied. It was true. Because of her family's financial standing, she wanted to work hard and get accepted into a good university so that she could find a good job when she grew older. That ways, her mom wouldn't need to work so hard anymore to support her.
"I have a son your age," the man explained, "since you two will be attending the same school from now on, I hope that you will be good motivation for him to try harder at his studies."
The girl faltered for a moment. Was he challenging her grades? Was he telling her that his son was better than him?
"I'm sure I will," Kiyori half glared at the man, "thank you for telling me about that."
He gave a mocking glare of his own back at her, "It is no problem. As for your job as a maid at my manor…it's is alright. You can focus on your studies while your mother does her job. That is all I wanted to say. Leave now."
Kiyori hated this man already. He was mocking her and looking down at her so hard. She would prove to him that she was better than this son of his. Bowing, she muttered a simple 'thank you', before turning to leave the room.
"And Tsukino-san," Akashi Masaomi added as she was about to leave, "do not disappoint me."
Kiyori paused with her hand on the doorknob, "I assure you I won't."
With that, she opened the door and left the room. Perhaps because of her anger, she managed to find her way back to the maid corridor with ease. Since it was a weekday today, she would have to attend classes at Rakuzan High School. Her mother seemed to be already at work once she made it back to the room. There was a note on the desk that told her the address of the school, and papers that told her her schedule and the class that she was in first period.
Tsukino opened the closet door and took out the uniform. It was a simple grey blazer, dress shirt and tie for the top, and a skirt and tights for the bottom. Putting it on, she left the room with the papers, and asked a maid to lead her out of the house.
With the map of the city, it was relatively easy to find her way to school. Kiyori have always had a pretty good sense of direction ever since she was young, so she had no problems with following directions from a map. Once she arrived at the school, there were still thirty minutes before classes started. Thus, she made her way to the office and told the secretary there that she was a new transfer student. The lady was nice enough to show her to her homeroom teacher so that she could be introduced to the class when classes did start.
When she was introduced, there was the normal gossip that appeared whenever someone new appeared. Her classmates seemed to be relatively nice people—at least she hoped that they were.
"And thus, Tsukino Kiyori-san will be joining us for the rest of this year. Please be nice to her!" the teacher gave the strawberry blonde a nice smile, which she returned gratefully.
"Tsukino-san, you will be sitting beside Akashi-san in the back there," the teacher Sasabe, explained. Kiyori immediately froze upon hearing the name 'Akashi'. It couldn't be…right? The son of the scary man at the mansion couldn't possibly be her desk partner!
However, it seemed like her worst fears came true, as the boy who raised his hand at the back of the classroom gave her a small smile. His red eyes and red hair were a dead giveaway that he and the man back at the mansion were related.
Yeah, her life was definitely a huge problem, and it was only going to get worse from here on.
A/N: Disclaimer - I do not own Kuroko no Basket, or Akashi and his parents. The cover picture for this fic belongs to its respective owners as well.
Yayy first chapter of this story. It's just a random idea I came up with while I was showering the other day...hahahahaha. I don't know if I'm gonna update this story a lot cause it really is just a random idea I came up with. It was inspired by the Korean drama Heirs, ever heard of it? Thought it would be cool for Akashi to fall in love with a peasant girl.
Well anyways, uhh...leave me a review if you liked it and I'll see if I can update it again sometime. Otherwise, I might just leave it as a oneshot since I really don't have time to write stuff that people aren't even interested in haha.
Well, thanks for reading this strange thing!